News

History
Channel films Wright Flyer project

By
Arrin Brunson
The Herald Journal
July 19, 2002

The Wright
Flyer project at Utah State University has captured the attention of nationally
renowned History Channel, but Dave Widauf, director of aviation at USU, said
he isn't one bit surprised.

"We saw the vision,"
Widauf said. "Nobody else did, but we had some
vision that this would be a really neat event."

USU and the Space Dynamics
Laboratory (SDL)
coordinated the construction of two life-size flying
replicas using space-age materials for the 100th
anniversary celebration of the Wright Brothers first
successful powered flight in 1903. Widauf said he
wouldn't be surprised if the project also gleaned
interest of the National Geographic and Discovery
Channel.

A year in advance of the
celebration, though, it was
The History Channel that was first on the scene in
Logan this week. The History Channel is very
committed to celebrating the important anniversary
of the Wright flight in 1903, said Rick Beyer, director,
producer and writer of the film.

A two-man crew from Boston
began filming on the
USU campus early Thursday morning. The finished
result will be a two-hour documentary to be aired on
The History Channel in conjunction with other
anniversary activities some time in 2003.

Engineers, students, faculty
and local business
sponsors have contributed to the design and
construction of two replicas using space-age
materials to improve upon the original Wright design.
This is the factor that caught the attention of Beyer,
owner of SMASH Entertainment Group, which was
contracted by the History Channel to make the
documentary.

"It's just really
different and interesting, the way
that they're approaching it and the way that they're
modifying the plane," Beyer said. "They're trying to
take the basic design of a Wright airplane and push
it to the maximum potential."

Widauf said the media
attention is both exciting and
fascinating. The amount of time required to film a
routine interview came as a surprise to Widauf, who
got his nose powered before he went before the
camera Friday morning at Utah State.

"They've spent better
than an hour here setting the
lighting up," Widauf said. "It's an art form and
they're very good at it."

The nearly 12-hour-long
days of filming haven't left
much time for Beyer and photography director Dillard
Morrison to explore the territory, although they said
breakfast at Angie's Restaurant every morning gives
them a glimpse at Cache Valley life.

"It's very beautiful
here," Beyer said. "We will be
coming back. I would just love to bring my family
here."

Cache Valley resident
Jon Watkins is the third
member of the production crew. The KSAR production
company employee is the audio manager for the
History Channel's Wright documentary.

"This is one of the
more exciting partnerships I've
been a part of," Watkins said. "It will be exciting
next fall to see this program and to see Cache Valley
representing Utah State on a major television
channel."

Ying Yen, a student involved
in the construction of
the planes, said when he came from Taiwan several
years ago to study aeronautical maintenance at USU,
he never dreamed of this.

"When I was a child,
I read a lot of stories about the
Wright Brothers but I cannot believe after 20 years
that have a chance to participate in this project," he
said.

James Call, USU aviation
maintenance student, did
some machining demonstrations on film Thursday and
welcomed the chance to tell a national audience
about the project. Call said the amount of time it
takes to build the planes is immense and he has
already put in 230 hours this summer. The most
important aspect of the project, Call has learned, is
the historical significance of the Wright Brothers'
flight nearly 100 years ago.

"It is important
for people to remember where we
started with aviation," Call said. "The Wright
Brothers were really ahead of their time and were
great pilots to fly an aircraft that was so unstable."

Once the cameras are gone,
efforts to finish the
construction of the replicas will again be the center
of attention in the hangar at Utah State. Widauf said
the planes will be finished in plenty of time and they
will fly.

The more pressing question,
Widauf said, is how to
fund the transportation of the vehicles. Plans are to
transport a replica throughout the state as an
outreach tool for the university and to have former
astronaut Jake Garn fly the USU replica in the Wright
Brothers' hometown of Dayton, Ohio at the July 2003
anniversary celebration.

"We're going to be
one of the major events there at
that celebration and they're more excited back in
Dayton about our project, I feel, than our own local
people are because we haven't got the story out
really well," Widauf said. "This is going to be a big
thing for Cache Valley. This is huge."